THE LICENSING QUESTION IN ENGLAND.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 480, 14 June 1890, Page 5

THE LICENSING QUESTION IN ENGLAND.

Cabinets in England have been very ebary about interferingwibh the licensinglaw. The liquor interest constitutes a strong political power, which is exercised with consider., able effect at every Parliamentary election. Lord Randolph Churchill puts the case very bluntly in a recent article : “ Governments, whether Liberal or Tory or Unionist,” ho remarks, “fear the organisation of the alcoholic liquor trade, wholesale and retail. Two - thirds of the members of tho present House of Commons are in- -v. spired by a similar terror. Crime, ?■ disease, and poverty are nothing; the loss of a few votes in the House of Commons or in a constituency is everything, and the monarch Alcohol reigns supreme. It must bo admitted that so long as ‘ the trade remains hostile to reform, legislation by the existing House of Commons is not easy of accomplishment. 5 ' |f He then goes on to urge that “ thß trade is foolish not to embrace the chance of reform under a friendly Government, willing to concede compensation instead of leaving the matter to be dealt with perhaps by the Liberals and Radicals, every one of whom, he observes, “ pledges himself, as a matter of course, to popular control of the liquor traffic and against compensation to brewers, distillers and publicans.” “The trade” seemed willing enough to accept Lord Randolph’s advice, but it is evident from the monster popular demonstrations against compensation that thepublic are not exactly in harmony with the publicans on this momentous question, and it is believed that the Government will abandon that part of their Bill.

Upon Lord Randolph Churchill’s own showing, this compensation business would be a very big thing. He himself favours the adoption of the basis of the Bill introduced by Mr Bruce in 1872, under which the public houses in London would have been reduced from upwards of 10,000 in 1872, to about 3,000 ; in England and Wales, from upwards of 100,000 in 1872 to about 32,000. He says : “In 1872, the number of public-houses per head of population was about one to 182. The Government of that day, after exhaustive consideration of the question, decided that one public-house per thousand of the population in towns, and one per 600 in the country, was an adequate provision of establishments for the sale of alcoholic liquor. At> the present day, 18 years after the authoritative Ministerial judgment, tho number of public houses per head of population is about one to every 200 souls.” Now, to reduce the hotels to this standard, a measure which Lord Randolph declares to be necessary to save the nation from becoming “each generation more and more alcoholised, more fatally liable to crime, poverty, and disease,” would involve the closing up of four out of every five licensed houses in the country. It is no wonder that the nation stands aghast at the prospect of the wholesale pillage of the Public Treasury which such a scheme opens out. No ! whatever course licensing reform may take in England, wedo not believe that the proposals in which Lord Randolph affects to see the salvation of tha country and “the trade” together, will ever be endorsed by the British House of Commons. “ Auckland Star ” June 10.